Dawn of Keelhauling
by Hedchoo
Summary: Everything had gone just fine, until Badger Schwarz gets caught on a mission of a personal vendetta, then it all goes downhill... Law/OC
1. Escape!

_Day 1_

_I should never have trusted that guy, make it a note to future self that one-armed, one-eyed men that reek of booze generally are up to no goddamn good._

The white piece of chalk that conveniently had been laying on the dirty stone floor of the cell made the girls -well, a woman, but that could barely be seen- fingers all white and dry. To take her mind off recent events, she occupied herself with the chalk to draw pictures on the stone walls and write small notes such as this one, seeing as she is terribly easy to bore.

Her bottom had already begun to ache, which may have come as a result from sitting too long on the ragged concrete floor, she had to make sure to get up and move about so said body part wouldn't lose all sense of feeling.

They had taken -or stolen- all her previous possessions when they had captured her, but if it could have been any consolation, they allowed her to keep her own clothes at least, which consisted of a black turtleneck and tights, a white coat with really wide sleeves, and a pair of grey shoes. But they also examined her first for more "malicious tools you freaks use", and _that_ in turn meant them taking all her lock-picking tools, _damn_.

The young woman pulled her hand through her short black hair, sighed, and slapped a hand over her face wondering how she got herself into this mess, this wasn't part of the plan...

When this whole incident had occurred, it had already became night, and the darkness was obscuring her vision, so resistance was futile, she was not so stupid as to resist against several marines, and one officer, though of to her unknown rank.

"Hey, prisoner. Dinner's here."

A voice echoed slightly from the heavy gate through the barred window, the gate was made of what she presumed was some kind of metal, it was heavy as one would expect due to its size anyway.

A small shutter opened, a wooden trail was pushed forward, and with a suspicious look upon her face, her dark brown eyes roamed about the contents.

Nothing out of the ordinary, just a jug and a jar of water, and a medium sized bowl with vegetable soup that looked awfully watery, and a piece of bread at the side.

"Better 'ta eat it while it's hot lassie, you ain't gettin' no seconds around here," the man stated indifferently with a heavy accent and deep voice.

The shutter closed with a '_clack_' and she could hear the dinner-server walk away with echoing steps, and with that, she was once again alone.

The newly made prisoner was not so stupid as not to eat in some act of childish rebellion, not eating lead to decreased chances of escaping due to low energy after all. So with little vigor, she consumed the food set on the trail.

Suddenly, a sound was heard which came from her left side. She hadn't explored this cell too much, not that there was much to explore anyway, but her increasing boredom and lack of tiredness made her get up and seek out the source of this noise. Which strangely enough sounded like the meow of a cat.

That was when she realized the cell was actually underground. From a barred window which was almost at the top of the wall, she actually had to go pretty close to actually see something, a black cat had perched itself calmly at the soft grassy ground. With curious eyes, it observed the woman, wordlessly asking if she may have some food to spare for a hungry cat. She snorted, that cat seemed pretty well-fed, so even if she had any food left, she would have spared it for herself.

"If you want to do some good, you can go and get the keys to the cell so I can get the hell out of here."

The cat only meowed back in a mocking manner, well only so much mocking a _cat_ was capable of.

She turned around, and just walked towards the nearest corner to sit down. Until her shin bumped against something hard and she fell to the ground in a heap, hands becoming all scratched up due to her trying to catch herself so other body parts, such as the face, wouldn't become such also.

Some insults and swearwords directed at no one in particular, left her mouth while she stood up and dusted off whatever dust was on her clothes now. She looked closer in the direction of where she had bumped against something and fell, and discovered that it was actually the metal frame of a bed with a mattress, a thin pillow and a blanket.

"Well, now at least I don't have to sleep directly on the concrete, thank god, I was beginning to get worried," she said to herself.

That was about everything she could do for now, so she figured she would get some sleep. Thinking out an escape plan could wait until tomorrow, she was too tired to think right now. The pillow was incredibly uncomfortable, earning her a headache shortly before she fell asleep.

* * *

><p>Black shadows enveloped the room, and the only source of light was a massive candle shoved down into a broken wine bottle.<p>

Almost equally massive hands wrote with almost ancient hand writing, on paper that looked like ancient papyrus with ink and a quill. The writer didn't even flinch when the door was burst down and another person entered, completely out of breath.

The newly arrived man saluted and said, "Sir..! We've caught the wanted person, after some resistance. It went without problems, her bounty is laughably low, but-"

He stomped towards the desk of which the mysterious person sat behind, and slammed his fists down on the table. A glass of water that happened to be on the table, crashed into the ground in a thousand pieces, water splattering everywhere.

"Lieutenant Evan, I would appreciate it if you did not spill out my drinking water, and-" he forced the hands of the young officer off the table with his own,

"-not interrupting me while I'm writing the monthly report to the headquarters. As you can see, I am busy."

The officer clenched his fists to the point of them whitening and nails digging into his skin and blood trickled between his fingers.

"But conveniently enough you forgot to inform me and my men that the damn girl was carrying a devil fruit!

He took a deep breath to calm himself slightly.

"If that woman had eaten the fruit earlier than we had found it, we may as well have been dead! What if it had been a logia fruit!"

The other person didn't answer, and simply put down the quill and waited for the ink on the ancient paper to dry. This response completely void of any surprise, earned a reaction from the Lieutenant.

"You knew it all along didn't you?"

He walked backwards a few steps, and his temperament drastically changed from very angry to deathly calm, but still that murderous look in his eyes.

"You knew that she was in possession of one of those cursed fruits, and you didn't want to send out a higher ranking officer in case of attracting too much attention."

He went over to his sword which he had somehow dropped on the ground after he had entered. He turned around and looked in the eyes of the higher ranking officer and told him one last thing.

"I don't like it when higher-ups risk the lives of my men when I don't have the truth about why."

And he slammed the door with as much force as he could, even so that all the windows in the room shattered.

The large person overlooked the room previously pretty tidy, but now with books that had fallen down on the floor when the Lieutenant slammed the door, and his superiors water glass broken on the floor. He sighed.

"Well, it looks like I'm going to have to get a new door."

He looked down at his finished report, and reread one particular part, the reason Lieutenant Evan was so mad.

_Report 21st October_

_The suspicions we had that a particular 'Badger Schwarz' was in possession of a so-called devil fruit, were correct. We now have her in custody in our cells, and the devil fruit safely stored in our vaults. We still do not know whether the other suspicions that her goal was to deliver the fruit to a certain person was correct, we failed to get information out of our informant, the "One-armed Jim" former pirate._

_Await further instructions whether to interrogate the woman or not._

* * *

><p><em>Day 3<em>

_I have been here for two days already, starting on my third. The cat seems to have taken a liking to me, after every meal it (since I don't know its gender) stand outside the barred window begging for any spares I might have. I never have any though._

The prisoner lounged around on the bed, extremely bored. She had stopped caring about the cat, she had already given it all the food he had left from her meal.

She -named Badger Schwarz- was starting to feel more and more "weary", probably because of the lack of time she got to spend outside of the cell, which was really none at all. Just Badger and her cell, sharing more company and more memories with each passing day.

After some time, that Badger didn't know how long it was, she started to hear sounds of footsteps coming ever closer to the prison cell door.

_Donk, donk_

_Donk, donk_

Wait, didn't the sound of regular shoes sound more, soft? And not like someone fastened two heavy blocks of iron on the soles.

_Bang!_

The prisoner jumped out of the bed startled, and realized that the person with the iron-boots were probably trying to break into the cell. And with no weapons at hand, or anything else that could serve as protection, she situated herself in a corner with her back to the wall, and arms in front of her torso, as if something would soon attack.

The banging against the door temporarily stopped, and some fiddling with a lock could be heard, why did he bother attacking it if he or she apparently had a key in the first place?

A few seconds after, the door swung open violently and a tall, slim man with long dark red hair in a ponytail, clad in a black suit with a red tie, fitting black pants and what looked like _really heavy_ boots. He also had the signature long coat of the marine officers hung over his shoulders, and as ninety-nine percent of all the other officers, he didn't have his arms in the sleeves of it.

After a train of thoughts, she realized that this was the man that had stood in the background barking orders at the group of marines that had captured her and brought her here!

The tall slowly made his way to right in front of her, with slow steps, as if he was intentionally trying to intimidate her with the heavy sound of his boots.

Many long painful seconds washed by feeling like an eternity to the black-haired woman, and without her knowing what to do, she started to panic slightly, if she was overpowered by those marines with them almost not breaking a sweat, who could tell what he could do to her.

His mouth opened, and a voice _very_ clearly indicating that he had zero respect or any kind of sympathy for her in his mind spoke,

"Criminal Badger Schwarz, you are accused of treason and conspiracy to overthrow the peace and order established by the Government and the Marines, and the only fitting punishment for these crimes are-"

His eyes, a very dark brown, averted themselves from the suspicious woman's quivering form back to the cell entrance at the sound of a chuckle from yet another man.

"Lieutenant Evan Wainwright, I do believe the Rear Admiral told you to simply bring her to the questioning, and not scare the poor girl to death, you're so intimidating!"

The taunting voice expressed an opinion clearly not popular with the man whose name was Evan Wainwright, and he growled silently while keeping his eyes fixated on him.

The new arrival who was a bit shorter than the other one and with short unruly dirty-blonde hair, but with considerably more muscle on his body, and he had the same outfit as the other one but with a white shirt opened showing off his chest instead of a full suit. The man walked over to Badger with a much more calm, almost _taunting_ demeanor, and flung his arm over Badgers' shoulders.

"Can't you see? The poor thing is shaking with fear, you should seriously look over that habit of yours to scare everyone around you to the other side of the room."

The lieutenant shook with anger at the new one's actions.

"Captain Radolf, your behavior is hardly befitting of a man of your rank. And besides, criminals don't deserve any other treatment than the worst."

Radolf just tsk'd, and replied.

"And you think you're the only one who's perfect? See this girl here, she looks like she couldn't even hurt a fly! Go easy on her."

He waved his other hand that was not wrapped around the prisoner.

Silence reigned over the room for at least one painful minute, Evan was most likely thinking over the possibilities of not getting in trouble for talking against a superior, but realized that the dangers overweighed what he would gain from doing so.

"Fine."

The lieutenant turned around almost sullenly, and retreated through the door opening. Before he stomped away though, he said a few words to the other marine, just to show that he _definitely_ would have the last word.

"But you have to bring her to the questioning, it's not my responsibility now, it's _yours,_ _Captain Radolf_."

He almost spat out the last words, empathizing them so they would sound very close to an insult.

"Phew, he left."

As if positions as a marine officer and criminal never was, he talked in an extremely casual tone, like one would do to an old friend.

"I can't stand that guy. He's so stiff, you're surprised his face haven't frozen fast in that constant grumpy grown of his."

He started to lead her towards the opening of the cell, still with right arm wrapped around her shoulders.

Until she realized something was wrong with this situation, _very_ wrong. A marine shouldn't get this homey-feely with a criminal, an officer no less! An outrage to say the least!

The black-haired woman quickly shoved off Radolf's heavy arm.

"What are you doing? Aren't you a marine officer? You're supposed to hit me, and drag me to wherever you have your torture chambers before or after you question me!"

And then, as if on cue, the one being shouted at burst out laughing, a deep rumble that started in his stomach, and then erupted.

"As tempting as that idea sounds, I can't do that. I have a reputation as the most easy-going marine Captain to live up to after all," he said and shrugged his shoulders in a very carefree and almost lazy manner and smiled.

"So if you could be so nice as to follow me nice and quietly, no one gets to be harmed hm?"

If it was something all outlaws knew, a mere thief or the most experienced pirate, was the basic fact that the higher the rank a marine officer had, the more often the officer in question was more powerful. That is if the person hadn't cheated and bribed his way up the ranks. But something in this guys eyes, they were so calm, like he just _knew_ that no one dared to do anything, and he wouldn't have to lift a finger because everyone around him got horribly intimidated. And Badger sure wasn't up to it to find out. Best would be just to follow quietly, and take the consequences as they came.

Biting her lips in a frown, she nodded and followed while the Captain led the way.

Until the marine outstretched his arm to stop you on your way.

"Hey."

"What is it?"

"I forgot to introduce myself. The name's Captain Varan Radolf. Varan's the first name, got it?"

The black-haired woman didn't answer or reply, just sternly held her gaze fixed on the floor, she knew all too well that at the tiniest mishap of words falling out of the unfortunates mouth, it could be over.

* * *

><p>Once the two were there, an ordinary non-officer beckoned for the prisoner to take a seat at the small uncomfortable-looking chair in front of the large wooden table, in the middle sized white and grey room.<p>

The woman turned around abruptly, to see that Radolf had left when she wasn't aware of it. And just as this person started to be the only point of security she had in this place.

Well, nothing she could do about it, so the little uncomfortable chair soon became occupied by said person.

* * *

><p>The few moments that went by thereafter felt like an eternity to Badger, the tension hanging air was so thick, one would think that you could slice it with a knife. The gaze of the two guards blocking the gate to the interrogation room bore a hole in her back, she could just feel it.<p>

A single drop of sweat made its way down her forehead, and she reached up with her sleeve-coated arm to wipe it off. The single motion seemed to earn a reaction from the two guards, they most likely thought that she would whip up a gun and massacre everyone. Why would they be so cautious? Badger was well aware of the fact that the marines had set that a bounty would be rewarded to whoever brought her in, dead or alive.

Speaking of that, the suspicious guy who had ratted her out probably bathed in the booze or playing with prostitutes he had bought for the reward money. But with the bounty standard of the North Blue, it was weird the way the marines acted and handled her.

At some point during Badger's turbulent thought process, another person had entered the room, and seated him or herself upon the other seat, straight across from the black-haired woman. Her attention span only reached further than her own mind when the new one slammed _something_ hard and fast down on the table, producing a loud _bang_.

The prisoners' head snapped up and with her dark brown eyes wide open, observed the fresh arrival brooding at her. The person, who was a woman in her middle ages, had light brown hair in the strangest and most bizarre hairstyle she had ever seen. On her forehead escaped some hair from the enormous hair-bun right on top of her head, adding at least another head-and-a-half to her length.

Her marine officer jacket also added some to her shoulder length. Over all, she was a kind of large for her apparent age.

"Are you the woman by the name of Badger Schwarz," the person with the odd hairstyle asked with a sneer.

The prisoner was beginning to feel a little cornered here, she had almost no control of what she was feeling, and that they could toy around and do whatever they wanted, and she half expected the large woman on the opposite side of the table to suddenly do a table-flip. It wouldn't surprise her anyway.

"Answer me!"

Badger quietly in fear of what she may be capable of doing, nodded and stared down on her lap, where she also had clenched fists, whitening by the second. She continued.

"Do you hail from Skall Island here in the North Blue?"

The young woman nodded again.

"Do you, or are you having any malicious plans to overthrow the justice the Marines have worked hard to uphold, or helping others do so?"

Badgers' heart skipped a beat.

"You're wrong! I've not-" but she hindered more words to spill out due to the retaliation it may cause.

The interrogator woman tilted her head slightly to the side and back, as if looking down on her goal with eyes blue almost as bright as ice.

"I know your type." She nodded at her target.

"You are the type of punk that leave your island right out of the cradle thinking you can face the world head on, damn the consequences."

She got up out of her seat, and with unhurriedly made her way right beside the prisoner. Probably one of many technique they used slowly break down the minds of their victims. The woman leaned in until her face was right in front of Badger's, staring with those ice cold eyes.

"But you know what? The world isn't so simple as you may think. I cannot allow people such as you to roam freely."

She harshly grabbed the chin of the Skall Island citizen, twisting it to one side to observe the face, and then did likewise to the other side.

"You definitely look like one of those people, those damned Skallian's..."

And the next second she shoved the face away from her as though the prisoner had caught a deadly contagious disease.

Badger were lucky, because the next moment another set foot into the room, immediately catching the attention of the marine officer of rank yet unknown to Badger.

"Lieutenant Commander Daisy! Bridge urgently requests all the officers in the briefing hall. If possible, be there as soon as you can."

The Lieutenant Commander growled in annoyance and barked at him that she would be done when she was done and that he could tell Bridge that she would arrive when she damn well pleased. The poor chore boy yelped in terror in front of the intimidating posture of the woman and ran off with the news to this 'Bridge' person.

She turned back to the Skallian, hardening her gaze on her one last time.

"Bring her back to the cell! I'm not done with her yet.."

The two guards that had witnessed the whole procedure saluted in response, and both took one hand each of the prisoner as if she was a piece of meat, and dragged her out of the room, without much resisting on her part. Though when the three were well out of hearing range, Marine officer Daisy sighed and looked down on her hands, seemingly deep in thought.

'_That damn Skallian can rot in her cell for all I care...'_

* * *

><p><em>Day 5<em>

_Two days have gone since that Marine Officer interrogated me. I learned her name was Daisy, though I would give her a completely different name if it was up to me, maybe Thistle. I heard from someone that a thistle is a sort of daisy. And even though she said she wasn't done with me they haven't brought me in again. Enough about that, I think the cat's staring at me, I don't want someone or something else to rat out on me again._

Badger made a mental note to herself that as soon as she was out of here she would find that one armed old drunkard, and make him suffer. Not that she could do it herself, but one way would sooner or later turn up.

The prisoner turned her gaze up to the only source of light from where she sat on the incredibly uncomfortable bed, to the barred window in the upper right corner on the wall farthest away from the cell door. As usual, the black cat was sitting on the usual spot, right outside the rectangular opening. It had extended one if it's front paws through the bars, clawing on the concrete inside. Greedy kitten wants more food she doesn't have, Badger figured.

"Hey, you heard that about Captain Radolf?"

"Yeah, I definitely couldn't expect that from him!"

The cat quickly bolted away at the approaching two voices coming closer, maybe cats weren't allowed on this base?

"That's probably one of the main reasons he even had the smallest chance of acquiring the rank he has. It goes without saying that the Rear Admiral holds quite a bit of respect for him."

"You're right. But let's just drop this off and let's get out of here, we're already late."

The two voices exchanged some more mindless babbling while coming even closer to where the window was. The black-haired woman sat with her back to the wall listening intently. A shadow was cast across a small portion of the room when one of the two men had arrived just outside. They exchanged a few more mindless words, and then placed something, probably a wooden crate, right in front of the opening, and then went onwards on their merry way to neglect their duties.

"-Wait!" but the men had already gone too far away to hear someone from behind a crate, and when Badger desperately tried to push the crate away with her fists, it proved to be too heavy.

"Oh man...!"

The bright sun in the middle of the day filling the room with its radiant shines had disappeared in a second, leaving the room next to pitch-black, rendering it almost impossible to see anything, only the natural night sight that any human gains after having a few seconds to get used to the darkness.

She banged her head a few times, surely producing one or two bruises.

She whispered quietly to herself,

"I don't want to spend my last days without sunlight..!"

* * *

><p><em>Day 7<em>

_This is my seventh day here and still no one have removed the damn crate. I bet those two who left it here forgot all about it, that adds two more to my 'have to butcher when I get out of here-list'. _

_One-armed guy._

_Two men that I only know by voice._

_I can't see anything, so I hope my writing, that no one ever will read anyway, will be comprehensible. But right now, the darkness is getting to me, and I don't know whether it is night or day by the normal way of seeing how dark or light it is, but when the food arrives and with which message the guy carries: breakfast and dinner. _

_(a large gap from the latest sentence)_

_I'm still sure the cat's observing me from the other side of the crate._

* * *

><p><em>Day 10<em>

_The darkness lingers yet, and I'm afraid I've become too adjusted to the shadows. Will my eyes burst into flames if I ever get out of here? Five days of almost complete darkness evidently made me into this mess, my father would be ashamed._

_About that cat. I'm sure of it now, I can hear it every single one of my waking moments, it's meows disturbs me to the point of insanity, that noise is the only sound now besides the man who brings me my food, which the bastards cut down to only one meal per day as per two days ago. And now he by the way now only pushes it through the shutter without a word._

_I'm convinced that the black creature has some way of pushing its' magic through the crate, through the walls. The cat is watching every step I take, every word I utter, and reports it. I can do nothing, for then I will be ratted out again._

_I can trust no one._

* * *

><p><em>Day 11<em>

_Enough is enough, I want to be out of here, I'm taking the first best opportunity._

_I can no longer trust the words of that interrogator that she wasn't done with me._

The Skallian was perched on her bed, like almost any other day, staring at the wall in front of her. But difference now, was that she didn't have _nothing_ on her mind. Rather it went on haywire trying to think of a plan to get out of there. Could she find anything in the cell capable of reaching through the shutter hole to stab the guy? No of course not, what was she thinking! But what about seducing him? No, she couldn't trust her womanly features that much. Her mother had told her very much otherwise.

Suddenly an imaginary lightbulb went off on top of her head as she plopped her fist down into her other open hand.

She hastily stood up to set her plan into action, but was abruptly interrupted by something unforeseen.

Everything around her suddenly shook by a violent and intense explosion. Immediately Badger was cast to the floor by the shockwave, and quite a lot of dust accompanied by rocks of varying sizes also broke away from the ceiling and fell to the floor and on the woman. She coughed and her ears were ringing with a very intense and strong sound as she crawled under the bed to gain at least some temporary protection against the stony and dusty hell.

Something above her, she was thinking it had to be on some of the upper floors, was attacking the Marine base, and quite aggressively so too. The Skallian held her hands over her ears to at least protect them from further damage, if any more explosions were incoming.

Her body shook because of when two more smaller explosions went off before the prisoner dared to venture back from under the now ruined bed.

Everything in the cell was now, if possible, even gray-er than before. The white bed with the brown blanket was grey, the wooden trail with today's breakfast that she hadn't finished yet, only contained ruined ash-food now.

But there was one major difference. And that was that the cell door, had taken much of a blow from one of the explosions, and it seemed it only stood on its place at the support of one weak hinge. Badger kicked down the door with ease without hesitation and sprinted outside and into the complex of corridors that was the prison dungeon on this base.

Before she went on her merry way, she payed her respects to a guard who lay lifeless just outside her cell. Poor guy, a chunk of the unstable concrete had probably fallen down upon his head and knocked him out like a light.

Badger quickly squatted down and closed his eyes that were wide open with her hand before she sprinted down the remainder of the long corridor. While running, Above her, through the thick layer of stone and concrete, she could hear faint sounds of a battle going on.

Screams and fighting-cries.

Gunshots and sounds of steel against steel, also the occasional noise of smaller explosions, probably from mini-bombs.

Pressing on, she focused on getting out of there.

* * *

><p>After ascending from the stairs she found after turning and turning around every damn corner Badger finally got out of the underground construction that was the complex of prison cells and various torture chambers.<p>

No one was sitting at the desk at the little office that no doubt was the only way both in and out of there. The person that previously vacated the seat was most likely either attacking or being attacked by the obvious intruders of the base. Swiftly she pulled out, turned upside down and threw every drawer of the desk in hope of finding a bunch of keys.

There had to be a key to a room where they left all confiscated items right?

Every last one of the drawers were empty, and she plopped down against the stone wall behind her. Badger couldn't leave without her possessions, and she rubbed her temple in increased frustration, the plan she didn't preform had taken every last ounce of mental prowess.

In rage, the Skallian snatched one of the boxes and threw it against the wall and with another frustrated cry.

Easier than Badger would have thought, and she didn't expect it at all, it shattered without any difficulties. Splinters of wood were the only remains now, but among the remains, something blinked in a fashion that wood definitely did not.

The black-haired woman dashed across the floor and picked up the item.

"Huh, It must have been hidden beneath a cover in that drawer!"

And with new-found vigor, she exited the office and set out on a new journey to find her own things that the marines so _rudely_ had taken from her.

* * *

><p>"Schwarz... Schwarz... S, s"<p>

The newly escaped prisoner chanted silently as dark brown eyes scanned hundreds of boxes, all numbered and named, neatly placed upon shelves.

"Aha!"

The poor box with Badger's name written on it got pulled out quickly and its contents taken out. All in all that included a dagger of approximately a hands length, a small leather bag made so that you could fasten it at a belt, and a larger shoulder bag made for travelers.

The Skallian fastened the dagger under her coat at her right thigh under under the camouflage of the white coat, and rapidly fastened the small leather bag before she threw the last bag over her shoulder and ran out of there.

But she had barely opened the door to the confiscation room and exited before someone who clearly didn't watch themselves rammed onto Badger and them both fell to the floor in a heap.

The black-haired woman slapped her hands over her head which was spinning and making spots of white appear in her line of vision. She looked before her to see the face of the man or woman who apparently were too much in a hurry to look if people came before them.

A man of average length and lean build who already had heaved himself up from the floor frenetically looked around him for something he had dropped in the collision. One second later he snatched a pair of black sunglasses and promptly put them back on the bridge of his nose. He looked at her, and she noticed some outstanding things.

Besides the mans' green hat with a red brim that covered his light brown hair, he also wore a full white overall with a most curious jolly roger design on his chest pocket.

"I'm sorry girl, but I re~eally have to get going," he hurriedly said to her and continued in the same fast pace past her.

Her gaze lingered on the running form of the man, and noticed the exact same jolly roger design in a larger scale on the back of his white overall.

"Who was that?"

Badger sighed, it was no use lingering on the subject, she had to get going, more guards were bound to show up to check on the prisoners.

* * *

><p>The fugitive peeked around the corner of the wall at the end of the corridor she had reached upon arriving as close to what sounded as the epicenter of the battle.<p>

The place where most of the fighting took place and where Badger now studied with focused eyes, were a large hall with many rows of long wooden benches, of which almost all of them were reduced to simple wood splinter by now.

The Skallian moved her eyes from one corner of the room to the next, and saw that luckily, the battle were not as intense where she stood. If lady luck were on her side today, she may manage to slip by in the chaos across the room to the door leading out to freedom right in front of her on the other side of the room, all the while trying not to step on the corpses that lay in her path.

* * *

><p>When the fugitive woman arrived outside, she noticed the fighting decreased almost to zero, and she had next to no problems at all to run to the little port-town that lay a few hundred meters away from the Marine base.<p>

Amidst the confusion of the battle, Badger had taken the opportunity to break into the vault not too far away from where she had recovered her own possessions. She could only imagine the look on the higher-ups faces when they found out that she had reclaimed the devil fruit they had stolen from her. The woman fumbled the bottom of her shoulder bag with her hand, and felt the round fruit safely bumping around there. She smirked for a brief second before continuing towards the port.

A path on which she didn't get very far on.

Because right when she had taken her tenth step from where she stopped earlier to check on the fruit, something _large_ passed right above her head, and slammed down on the ground before her, creating a dust cloud with some particles searching their way into her eyes.

"Do not take another step further, you runaway trash."

When the dust allowed the black-haired woman's vision to return, her eyes widened as she saw the owner of the voice.

The very tall and slim man with the dark red hair and the heavy boots did not exactly look pleased that she had dared to move outside her cell.


	2. Sneaky

First thing off, I want to give a HUGE thank you to everyone who read, favorited and story alerted this fanfiction, I did _not_ expect this much on my first serious attempt at a multi-chaptered fanfiction ^^! One thing, as english is not my native language, I encourage you all to comment and help me with the grammar if you spot any faults C: Cheers!

And without delay, here is the second chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or it's characters.

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><p>"Syren? Where are we going?"<p>

A young Badger asked the older woman who was also her mentor. All the normal children went to school, and if Badger had to be honest, she was a little jealous. But none of that mattered, as long as she had Syren by her side.

She meant everything to her, she even sometimes referred to her as her mother. Syren taught her about life, educated her, and told her stories of what lay beyond the safe realm of their little neutral island. Sure, Badger knew she wasn't her real mother, but the bond she had created with this woman was irreplaceable.

Syren was also a researcher. Especially about their little islands history. Skall island located in the north blue, had always been fairly neutral in all conflicts of the rest of the world. They had a rich cultural history, but at a cost. Their military powers were severely lacking, and if an outside force decided to attack them, they would barely have a chance to resist an onslaught of their people.

But that would never happen right? After all, they did not possess any real resources or landmarks worth anyones time. In fact, the outside world was surprised that they were so _proud_ of their chilly and freezing island. Barely anyone went there because of that cold.

The middle-aged woman tucked a green lock of hair behind her ear and gazed down at the child beside her. Anyone could see that she was proud of her, and she treated her like she really was her daughter. After all, she had lost her own in a terrible accident...

"Why, Badger, we're finally going down into the vaults. I think you've waited long enough haven't you, hm?"

A bright smile shone up on Badger's face and she nodded quickly. She knew that whenever Syren returned from her travels, it was there she stored anything and everything she obtained.

The vaults lay beneath her relatively large house located on the outskirts of the village, because there was only one village there. And one had to open a shutter on the floor and descend through several spiral staircases into a long corridor that seemingly was part of a larger structure.

At the very end of the corridor lit up by torches there was a heavy wooden door that they passed through after Syren had hauled up a large metal key from her pocket and unlocked it.

Something akin to dust and old antique books leaked out of the opening gate. Syren began leading Badger through a large hall, with row upon row of shelves with books, obscure objects from different cultures, and some things a 7-year old had never even heard of.

"Tell me Badger, what do you know about the outside world?"

"E-eh? Why are you suddenly asking me-"

"Just answer my question."

The young one scratched the back of her head in a newly developed habit whenever she was deep in thoughts. The older, green-haired one, observed her with eyes suddenly very serious. Under that steady gaze, Badger began to feel increasingly nervous. Was this some kind of test?

"Uh, I don't-"

"Oh silly me! I forgot that you don't go to school with the other ones, of course you wouldn't know," Syren said cutting her off once again, slapping herself over her forehead. A playful look of goofiness overcame her features before returning to grave seriousness.

"Badger, this land is decaying."

The young one gasped.

"What does that word mean?"

"Nothing you need to hear at your age little one."

The green-haired woman shook her head and smiled slightly while ruffling about Badgers own mop of black.

"Oh! It looks like we're here!"

"Oh?"

Syren exclaimed happily at their apparent arrival. Before them, after descending deep below the surface, stood a small wooden door with a lock equally large of the one that safeguarded the entrance to this place, it was hidden behind a large bookshelf. It was barely as large as Syren was tall, so she had to bow down slightly before venturing into this mystery room.

There was nothing special about This new little room. Quite the contrary, it would seem insignificant to a pair of eyes that didn't know the true meaning of it.

It literally looked like someone had just taken a shovel and dug it out, and it would seem like they had been in a hurry too, no finesse and no sense of esthetics at all. The builders of the large library-went-treasure-chamber and of this room had to be so different to each other.

Badger's eyes immediately went to a little altar set up at the far end of it. On top of that little altar lay a little chest, so small it could fit into a large pocket in fact, that seemed equally fast builded and of poor quality as the room Syren had taken her too.

"Badger, what do you think that is?"

The thought 'Syren sure is asking a lot of weird questions' flashed through the little one's mind. She pondered for a couple of seconds and answered.

"That is a treasure chest."

The words came out as she had stated something obvious.

Syren only shook her head.

"Then what is it?"

The older woman sighed.

"I guess, that you could say that this is my treasure... I wanted to show you it."

"Treasure? Is there gold inside?"

"No. Not all treasures are gold and gems you know, Badger?"

The one spoken to just became even more bewildered and hundreds of thoughts went through her head whilst Syren held her daily lessons with her.

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><p>Badger breathed heavily while crouching on the ground, fixating the deadliest glare she could manage on the marine before her. Who seemed especially hell bent on destroying her.<p>

She closed her eyes to collect her calm for just one moment. That was one of her big mistakes. The second light flooded to her eyes once again, Evan Wainwright stood just before her, and a knee kick fast as lightning went to her stomach.

Pain spread through her body like a wildfire, and making her cough up a little blood in her mouth. She spat it out on the ground and barely ducked out of the way of another kick aimed for her head.

"You may not know this but..."

A swift leg went behind Badger's own right one, and down on the ground she fell with her back and landed with a heavy thud. Before she had the opportunity to collect herself, the same deadly boot that wounded her now prisoned her there on the ground by standing on her chest. She could scarcely breathe and a particularly sharp edge of a sword pointed at her neck.

"I'm a man who hates leaving a job unfinished."

Suddenly he reached to the inside of his officer jacket, presumably to a hidden pocket or such, and brought out a small box.

Badger's eyes widened, for she realized that the object that Evan had brought out was the exact same small chest that she had brought on this island herself.

"Give that back!"

"Do you even know what is in this box?"

Of course, she had never looked inside it. Well, to be fully honest, she had tried once. But quickly got ushered away from it, and been told to never look inside it, never. So she never bothered with it anymore, she wasn't a curious kind of person and her mentor even told her not to, she the thought rarely crossed her mind since then. Only until the day that she had to leave.

But this man, this man seemed to know. Judging by his face, he had obviously broken up the lock and taken a look at the contents. Badger didn't want to show any sort of weakness or confusion, Syren taught her to show neither to an enemy, so she simply glared and shut up.

"What is inside of this box..."

The marine suddenly chuckled, which the skallian deemed out of their small encounters was very uncharacteristically of him. She guessed the only pleasure in life he found, was when he had his enemies completely under control.

"...Is a devil fruit."

Badger's eyes widened, did she just hear that correctly? She had heard about those things before. Syren had told her that these fruits went at a terribly high cost at the market. And whoever ate one, gained incredible powers. But that came at a cost. The devil fruit users will be rejected by the sea itself and become forever unable to swim. But most often the powers gained are more valuable than the ability to swim.

No one roamed the streets now. Badger even had a good clue as to why they didn't. When she was first captured, by the very man having her life under his sword literally, she didn't see any people around either. These people probably were too afraid of the them to even move outside their houses while the marines captured whatever criminal or _pirate_ that _dared_ to set foot inside _their town_.

"I've seen plenty of these fruits before, some of my colleagues even ate one for themselves. I know what they look like and that the color and shape can vary a lot. But this fruit is very strange indeed. It's very small, it can fit in the palm of my hand easily."

Evan gazed at the little box in his hand for a little while longer, before returning it to it's previous place inside his officer jacket.

"I myself am not sure why I'm telling _you_, a mere _thug_, all this. But no matter, your life will be over soon enough, I can't put my trust to Rear Admiral Bridge any longer to end your miserable life. Good bye."

It felt to Badger like her heart suddenly dropped from it's rightful place securely stored in her chest down to her stomach. The frightful Lieutenant rose his long katana sword high into the sky, the sun blinking off the edge and temporarily blinded her. Before she could say anything or shout for help that wouldn't come, the blade sailed down towards her neck once more for a deadly slash.

Badger shut her eyes tightly, preparing for the worst. She had always wondered how those executed by a guillotine felt in the moment of death. At least now she had the general idea on the feelings-part.

But she never felt the blade cut through the flesh of her neck, and instead opened her eyes to see that the blade had halted right above her neck, and the sound of a Den Den Mushi ringing it's familiar sound. The Lieutenant snatched a brown-colored Baby Den Den Mushi from inside his jacket -how many things did he store there anyway- and answered.

"This better be very important."

A pause.

"... Are you sure it's them?"

Another pause.

And a sigh from the depths of the abyss.

"I was hoping it wouldn't be... I'll be over there in a five minutes."

And as quickly as the skallian had been thrown on tripped and shoved on the ground, the heavy force holding her down was gone.

"Remember what I said, I hate leaving jobs unfinished."

And with that he dashed away, in the opposite way of the port and back in the direction of the marine base. She took the opportunity of having all the way to the port free for walking, and started moving. But not without halting and having heavy pain in her abdomen. She spat some blood on the ground and pressed on.

* * *

><p>"What..."<p>

Badger had planned to flee from the prison, and then somehow make it to the port and somehow get out of there. It was the details that somehow didn't get planned out. And so there she stood, with no idea where to actually go now that she actually was at the port. There weren't that many ships docked here, and as earlier there was no one out, so no borrowing a boat.

Evan had given her a leading start, but that wouldn't last long. So if she didn't find her way out of here, her newfound freedom would turn drastically short.

Starting from the right where the ships docked, there was actually only three ships of medium size capable of holding a moderately large crew. But the fourth vessel seemed curious. It was yellow, and didn't at all seem shaped like a normal ship. The only thing different with this, _interesting_ ship, was that it had a small bridge and therefore the only one of the four that she could actually board. So the choice was easy for Badger, towards the yellow ship it was.

The owner of this strange vessel probably weren't going to be happy upon learning that someone unknown had boarded his or her ship. But desperate situations called for desperate measures.

Most ships were normally made of wood, but this one was made of metal, and made Badger's steps clink quietly while sneaking her way around the corridors and corners of the interior of the ship. Why sneaking? Because if the ship was open for almost anyone to just barge in, there almost certainly were someone or somebody to guard it's secrets.

Badger walked around at random trough the corridors, not knowing exactly where to go, until she saw something. A staircase, probably leading even farther down into the ship.

As far down she could get, and farthest in too, the door there was unlocked. Swiftly the increasingly nervous skallian clicked open the door, with as little sound as possible.

Inside seemed to be some sort of storage. Barrels of wine and piles upon piles and row upon row of crates and spoils of battle and war. This room seemed quite big, and it seemed like the one that put the wares inside this room was in a hurry, because the farther away from the entrance she got all the things became less... _organized_. The order of them all seemed to slip away, in contrast to the neatly stacked piles and rows in the beginning.

Badger grunted and cursed lowly, her vision started to get blurry. She felt fresh new iron taste in her mouth, she guessed that the damage lingered yet, some sleep and rest would do good she thought.

Finally, she reached a section in this large storage room, that appeared to be somewhat secluded from the rest. It was constructed like a small separate walk-in room, but without a door. The contents of this space were convenient enough. Very large barrels that showed signs of containing wine or some other alcohol, judging by the smell of them. From where she entered, there was five rows of them, with another five in each row. Badger noticed a small space on the other side of this room and of the barrels, a small plan formed in her head, pretty irresponsible, but a plan nonetheless.

She began by climbing up on them, and made her way all over to that little space by the end.

It took a little effort, but she managed to squeeze her way into a pretty comfortable position behind the barrels. Badger doubted that someone would come and remove all those heavy and big casks of alcohol until at least the next island. She just had to hold out until then, she could always sneak out when no one was looking and "borrow" some food. She was after all in a storage.

The blurryness before her eyes eventually became worse, and she half fell asleep, and half just lost consciousness due to built up fatigue from the fight with the angry Lieutenant.

* * *

><p>The skallian awoke a few hours later to the sound of many men and lots of sounds, most of them were too incoherent for Badger's mind to make any sense of them.<p>

Suddenly, someone barged right into the room where she currently sat squeezed behind large barrels of alcohol. The person who had come in there sounded extremely mad about something, and stomped his way closer to one of the casks.

"Stupid son of a bitch... I'll rip that stupid smirk off his face one day and throw his hat into the ocean..."

Badger tried to peek at whoever the person was who could be so angry. She could only watch through the gaps near the floor, so she could only see him waist-down. Funny, he was wearing the same sort of attire from the looks of it as the person she had crashed into earlier when she was escaping. She could not however ponder over that any longer, because she had to slap her two hands over her mouth to not let out a very audible gasp, for the angry tall man suddenly grabbed onto one of the alcohol-casks with his arms and heaved it onto his shoulder like it was nothing.

'That man certainly had the strength of a bear!' The thought flashed through Badger's mind.

She waited a few minutes until she absolutely did not hear any sounds anymore, and let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding. The corners of her field of vision had started to get a little blurry. Great, and she was starting to get tired too. The skallian figured she would be better if she got even more sleep... even in this ever growing uncomfortable position.

Her eyes closed, in hopes to feel better when they opened again.

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><p>Her eyes darted open a while later to the feeling of being carried somewhere. In fact, she was not being carried, but the boat had started moving. In realization, Badger became happy, knowing that the next island only was a boat trip away, however long that may be.<p>

Suddenly, a high sound was heard. Her stomach grumbled, signaling that the latest time she ate was very long ago, or at least by her standards.

Badger slowed down her breathing as much as she could, and became very quiet, to hear if someone or somebody was approaching, or if there were any voices. Fortunately, there weren't any such things, and she the skallian even dared to look above the barrels, barely above them, she didn't see any humans at least or anything.

Badger un-gracefully hopped up on the casks, and darted out of the little room without a door, towards where she had on her way here seen a shelve with what gave the impression of being rows of canned food. Pray to god that she found a can-opener too...

Well there, after some serious staggering, it would seem like the serious kick the Lieutenant left a serious toll, she grabbed the first best can of food and conveniently enough, beside it lay a small box of can-openers. This particular can contained mashed tomatoes and Badger excitedly opened it when she was seated once again in her little hiding spot.

She had only taken the edge of the can to her mouth, when her arms latched around her stomach, because she felt this weirdest feeling. A burning sensation felt like it was exploding starting from her abdomen and the pain was so intense, nothing else mattered and her vision darkened. Her hands were trembling, and she couldn't help but starting to cough, and with that she felt yet another round of blood coming up in her mouth. Were her insides damaged from the fight with Wainwright? Badger started to panic, why did everything have to go this way? She hadn't even done anything. The Marines had made a mistake when capturing her because her label as a criminal was unjust in her opinion, but escaping from prison was a serious crime in itself.

The world started spinning around her, and she started to hear strange sounds, like they actually were underwater, Badger disregarded it as sounds fabricated by her mind though. In her confusion she escaped from her hiding in some sort of hopeless attempt to find a life-boat and escape. Of course that would be impossible, for the boat had already started to move, but she didn't realize that.

The increasingly weaker woman leaned against a random wall outside of the alcohol-room, to catch her breath. Her head snapped up though, and eyes widened.

"Captain said he wanted fish for dinner tonight, Bepo did you really have to mention that to him?"

"Okay..."

Yet another raging person approached quickly, seemingly furious at the one accompanying him by the name of Bepo. This Bepo sounded a whole lot more depressed and sad, perhaps at the sudden complaints of annoyance at him from the first voice.

"Now it's on me to satisfy his demands if I don't want to get in trouble. Dammit! I'm supposed to be the cook on this ship, and therefore I'm the one deciding what's for dinner!"

All the while those steps sounded ever closer, Badger's heart sped up. She didn't dare move, in risk of them hearing her, she just hoped that if there was a deity watching over her it would make it so that they would just walk past. But suddenly they stopped.

"Why in blazes are you stopping Bepo? Hurry up!

"Sorry... but, I smell something strange."

"Something strange?" the other voice replied in disbelief.

"I smell blood."

All blood in Badger's body turned to ice, or at least it felt like it. Swiftly she turned around to run the opposite way of the two, but she didn't come that far, because a big wall blocked her way. A wall that oddly enough felt... soft? Her head turned up and there was the large head of a white bear.

"Hey, Timothy! I think she is hurt..?

After overcoming the initial shock of actually seeing and hearing a bear _speaking_, Badger promptly screamed at the top of her lungs and passed out.

* * *

><p>"Is she awake?"<p>

"Who is she?"

"Ow! That was my foot you bastard!"

"It was an accident! Stop acting like you're on your period all the time!"

"Everyone be quiet, I think she's waking up."

The mindless chattering quieted down to only some of them murmuring for themselves on the other side of the door to a medical ward.

Two dark brown eyes slowly fluttered open, the expected unfocused edges decreasing by the second. Several sets of eyes met hers, most of them suspicious, automatically, Badger averted her gaze instead of meeting them head-on.

She felt chilled to the bones, and realized none of these people were exactly pleased that someone totally unknown to them had entered their ship, or whatever it was. Because the sounds of being underwater still remained, she would have to ask about that later, if they didn't kill her.

All of a sudden, a voice spoke directly to her, it wasn't as dark as many others she had heard, but there was a well-hidden lethality behind it. One that clearly said if she made one wrong move, the life that they had saved, could just as easily be disposed of.

"What are you doing on my ship?"

Badger regretted ever going on this ship, everything was turning out to be the worst case scenario. Getting discovered definitely wasn't part of the plan.

"I-I'm... excuse me, if you would lend me a small boat, I'll leave immediately," she said weakly, trying to heave herself up on the thin bed that she was lying down on, but was instantly pushed back down by a strong pair of hands.

"We are escaping from the previous island, and I intend to keep this submarine underwater until we are safe. So a boat is impossible. I will not ask you one more time, what are you doing on _my ship?_"

Wait. Did he just say _submarine? _That would explain a few things, but still it didn't calm her down. Her averted gaze turned to the borderline threatening voice. The most intense stormy gray eyes she had ever seen in her life, slightly overshadowed by the fluffy white hat with black spots placed neatly upon his head. Something she couldn't do, was bring herself _not_ to answer.

"I... was imprisoned on Pen Pen island marine base, though unjustly so. I was just passing through, and I took advantage of a explosion and escaped in the confusion."

Badger once again looked at the annoyed and perhaps angry person. He didn't say anything, so she took it as she would go on.

"I was chased by a marine Lieutenant and got injured, he got called over the what fight that was going on, so I continued on to the port. I had to escape to somewhere, anywhere, and no one was present for me to loan a boat. I boarded the nearest ship. Or I at least thought it was a ship."

"Surely there had to be other alternatives, better ones?"

"Yours was the only one that I could board, it had a bridge leading to an open door."

The intimidating man whipped around to face another, who stood by the door. He had a large fluffy red hat, which quickly pulled down as he blushed and left the room.

"Such blunders will not happen again. What is your name," he said, and the last part could have came out more like a demand.

"Badger Schwarz"

"Well then, miss Schwarz. One of my mechanics, who we rescued out of captivity of that island, said he met you there. Is it true?"

"What?"

Her eyes widened somewhat, because when she looked behind her, she saw the exact same person who she had bumped, or _crashed_, into on her hurry out to freedom. The ginger winked at her and smiled.

"I vouched for you, you know~? Captain does not usually take lightly upon these sort of things."

"Err... thank you?"

Well, didn't _that_ sound awkward.

Arms crossed, he slowly strode over to the confused young woman, smiling almost _flirtatiously._

"Lucky for _you_, the next island is pretty close, so you can tag along."

And his eyes almost screamed '_and without getting yourself killed by captain_'.

But without warning, realization dawned upon her, and her memory pieced together all the recent events. She had seen a jolly roger on this guys back, that she also saw on the "captains" yellow and black shirt. And if Badger could remember correctly, a similar symbol was painted on the yellow submarine, which she glimpsed at in her hurry getting on board.

Such a _blunder_. Without knowing it, because it all made sense now, she had unknowingly boarded a pirate ship. The skallian felt like sinking through the ground. and never come back. Her cheeks turned red in an instant, and she asked, "Where... On what ship am I..?"

The ginger pirate with the sunglasses fought to not burst out laughing. Apparently he thought her mistake hilarious.

"I'm Trafalgar Law," the captain said. "and you are on the submarine of the Heart Pirates."

"What..? I-"

"You know, you had internal injuries and had lost a lot of blood, I think this is hardly a way to express your gratitude to us for treatment, don't you think?"

At a loss for words, Badger remained quiet.

* * *

><p>After that little episode, Badger had been allowed to stay, but only in the medical ward and the facilities. One of the pirates brought her three meals per day, and overall, her current situation was quite <em>dull.<em> The only source of hope she had, was that she would get off the next island. They hadn't allowed her more, if that Shachi, he had introduced himself later, hadn't "vouched" for her, her situation could be _much_ worse for boarding a pirate ship without permission.

Fact didn't change, that she had to go as soon as they docked on the next island. Badger didn't complain though, a nice fellow by the name of Penguin, weird name, but she couldn't complain since she also had one, told her that the doctors there were good. So no need for worry. _Syren's Soul_ was also an island renowned for being a center of trade right before the Grand Line, _everyone_ wanted to stock up on supplies.

Even if no one paid any special attention to her, nor did she particularly like any of them, but she couldn't help but feel her spirits being lifted even by the smallest amount when it were either Penguin or Shachi bringing her the daily rations. Friendships weren't built in a day, and she would probably never see them again.

Not even to Syren, if she were here, would Badger admit that she wished to see them again sometime as she left the yellow submarine to the new island, not once looking back.


End file.
